It's a grand old flag!

Old Glory flies off our stern.

I am sorry to say that it took us eight months to get the USA flag flying properly from Aunt Aggie.  We have the dinghy on the swim platform, so that blocks the flag holder spot that came with the boat. Now that we are headed to Canada and are buying their flag as a courtesy, we want our flag flying too.  So today we found a way to mount it on the stern from the fly bridge.  Yahoo!

Another Alexander first today was George's changing the oil on the boat.  He is not a person who changes the oil on our car, so at first he thought he'd just pay for this service as we do for autos at home.  After watching the mechanic change the oil in Titusville, FL, he said, "I can do that." And today he did.  I must say, I was a bit nervous and didn't watch.  I went below to work on plans for tomorrow.  He seems to have been successful, and we carted off the dirty oil with no spills. 

We are renting a car tomorrow and touring the FDR home, Springwood,  at Hyde Park.  We will also see Mrs. Roosevelt's cottage, Val-Kill.  We are huge Roosevelt fans.  We are going to lunch at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and then doing errands:  CVS, Wells Fargo, P.O., and ShopRite for a lime.  I hope we can complete the errands without seeming too bizarre after having a French lunch at CIA. Enterprise Leasing is just a 10 minute walk from here, so we can get the car early and have fun driving 35 mph.  Woohoo!  For people who usually go 8 mph, this is a thrill.  

We have been here now for a week, and it is a bit strange to stay in one place and see so many loopers come and go.  We have greeted at least four sets of boats.  There are the ones who came in with us on Wednesday, the ones who arrived on Saturday, the new boats who were here when we returned from Vermont, and the ones who came today.  We are now the Harbor Hosts for Half Moon Bay Marina.  

(That's a joke.) We tell people about the Shop Rite and the laundromat and the taxi.  

When we came in yesterday from Vermont, we found No Zip Code and Knot There in the marina.  How fun!  They had gone out to a tavern but came by here late, the pop in.  So glad to see them.  They are real friends now.  They both left today.  I want to go too.  But it makes no sense for us to rush north since we are leaving our boat in Albany soon and going for a week in Atlanta.  It's hard to relax and stay put.  We did have a good day.  I think this may be my initiation into being retired.  

Half Moon Bay with a west wind, creating a bounce.